Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[agapetos]

Hi, this winter was bad for me due to hospitalization, so I was not able to properly take care of my bees (add more of isolation around my hive). So, since yesterday was a warmer day, I've guessed that at least some bees will go out, but since none came out, I've opened up and saw that they've died. Now, I am left with a lot of combs (I will melt them), few kilograms of capped honey and a lot of cells that I don't know what to do with.
I know that I haven't stoped adding syrup on time, so last fall they did not manage to process all of the syrup in time. What was left was a lot of cells with liquid in them. Now I don't know what to do with it - should I just use capped honey? What about cells that have like mixed ingredients? Here is the picture - what would you use?

[Jon]

looks like granulated honey possibly from ivy

[Barbara]

Hi

Sorry to hear that you have been unwell and that your bees have died.

Personally I would leave it to either get robbed out or attract a swarm. There is no real value to you in it, so leave it for nature to take care of.

Regards

Barbara

[agapetos]

Yes, I do have a lot of Ivy groving around my house and in the park behind my house, I mean, A LOT. Could it be that it is what Ivy honey looks like?
On the top quarter of the comb (not seen on the picture) there is a lot of capped honey which I plan to take.
So, my dilemma is: would it be of a better use to give that uncapped honey to new swarm that I am willing to purchase or to leave it to be robbed? The problem is that I have a very big nest of yellow jackets in a neighbours roof and they would probably lick it clean. How much chance is that I would attract the swarm that way?

[mfk]

If you can rule out brood sicknesses you could store these combs in a freezer and feed to a new hive once they are established.

The freezer would kill of wax moths and obviously keep away wasps and other pests. Robbing might spill over into your new hive.

[agapetos]

I am sure they had varoa. That is one of the reasons (maybe the main one) why they died. I have treated them but too late (began in autumn).

[Barbara]

Freezing is a good solution. I would cut the comb off the bar and cut off and extract whatever is good capped honey and freeze the rest until swarming season and then reattach to a bar with masking tape and see if you get any scout bee interest.
There is nothing much lost if wasps come and clean it out first, although I would have expected your neighbour's wasps nest to have died out over winter, unless you have a warm climate.

I assumed it was crystallised syrup because you mentioned feeding them syrup, but it certainly could be crystallised ivy honey.

As far as I'm aware, the varroa won't survive without bees to live off, so if that was the cause of the colony's collapse then it shouldn't be a problem.

[agapetos]

Thank you.
That is what I will do: Take the capped honey, put the rest into a freezer and either reatach it for the possible swarm or give it to the new package of bees...

If I gave those combs with (possibly) cristalized syrup to new package of bees, do you think it would affect them in some bad way?

[Barbara]

I must confess that I would be less inclined to give it to a package than a swarm or established colony.... I just don't trust package bees to thrive like a swarm will.

I would be inclined to make a bait hive and put this comb into it and put it up somewhere more remote if you are intending to recolonize your hive with a package.... maybe a friend or relatives garden would be a good location, in the hope of attracting a swarm.... and let your package bees draw out their own comb. Then move the bait hive back home if it is successful.

Some of this honey will have started to ferment and whilst I am confident a swarm could deal with it, I would just be wary of giving it to a package.

That is just a gut feeling, and I'm sure there are others who would probably not even let a swarm have it. I think there is a difference between putting it in a hive that you then put bees into, so they have to deal with it and putting it into an empty box that bees have a choice to inhabit. Hope that makes sense.

[agapetos]

What about empty combs - do you think that it would be useful for bees that I just reatach it to the bars. That way I think I would both save them some time in drawing a comb and provide streight combs from the start?

[Barbara]

Yes, I would definitely give them a couple of empty combs as that will give them a good start, but not a whole hive full.

[mfk]

Personally I'd be less inclined to put up a bait hive. But that is because most beekeepers around here try their best to avoid swarms. The chances of actually catching a swarm are therefore pretty remote and I don't see much reason to feed the wasps.

However that depends a lot on your location of course.

If you're getting packaged bees I'd thing it would be a great idea to give them a head start with some combs. Sure, package bees are probably less good in establishing themselves, but that is the exact reason why they can use a bit more support than a swarm.

Which type of hives do you use? Can you just leave the combs on the bars and freeze them like that? Sounds much easier to me than force the bees to somehow reattach them.

If possible at all I'd rather get a swarm from a trustworthy, local beekeeper than a package. That would probably give you bees adapted to your location, seasons and landscape, support another beekeeper and avoid an unnecessary animal transport. After all bee's did not evolve to be shipped with DHL...

I know that in many regions in the world packaged bees are the only viable solution for getting bees. Personally I would regard that as the last resort.

[agapetos]

I have two KTBH. I live in Serbia and I have local beekeeping clubs, so by "package swarm" I meant a box with bees rather than bees with established frames with brood (In serbia everyone uses only the "standard" hives, no new hippy tipe of hives (like TBH). So, I will probably buy two swarms from local beekeepers (without brood).
Re: cutting out the capped cells - now that they are much lighter (whitout capped honey), I don't think it will be a problem to reatach it to bars. I'll try on one, and if it is ok, I'll do with other bars as well.

[alexg]

I would leave the honey for other bees.

[trekmate]